It may have seemed to many of you in the days since Brett’s resignation that the class had lost its direction and was plummeting into an abyss of back-biting and legalistic navel gazing. Unfortunately it was not possible, on grounds of pure practicality to do what has been done in the public spotlight, so please allow us to fill you in.
It was apparent that recent events had pointed up four things wrong with the class organisation that needed something doing about them – the fact that the class was effectively being run by the technical committee, the fact that the ‘judges’ on the technical committee were also the ‘friendly and helpful advisors’ in the public forums, the fact that the rules on appointment of National Representatives (the members of the class management committee) made no adequate provision for how those national representatives were to be appointed and, finally, the fact that past informal clarifications/interpretations of the measurement rules were scattered hither and yon through forum threads, e-mails and whatever.
In order to deal with these matters as quickly as possible, the management committee convened a working party consisting of themselves (Bill Hagerup, Bill Shorney, Angus Richardson and Per Dahlström) plus the following co-opted members: Brett McCormack, Roger Stollery, Richard Alford, John Amoroso, Doug Hemmingway, Barrett Sparkman, Charles Hall and Graham McAllister. The co-opted members were deliberately selected as people of divergent attitudes and strong personalities who were actively involved in the class in some way. Their level of experience of model yachts varies from relatively little to tremendous.
It must be said here, very publicly, that their work has been tremendous. We have never been part of another working party that has worked as quickly or constructively.
To put it briefly, previous rule clarifications have been collected and examined for clarity. Other possible problem areas of the rule were examined at the same time. The result is currently being proof-read and will be made available on the Official Website shortly (http://footy.rcsailing.net/ ). It should cut much of the ground from under the feet of the barrack-room lawyers. Two articles by Roger Stollery, one old, one new, on the nature and general intent of the Footy rule have been published on the Official Website. They may be regarded as embodying the ‘spirit’ of the rule.
A change in the Class Charter is being proposed and all registered owners are being e-mailed with details of the poll. Since the matter is one between members and the class, it is not appropriate to discuss it in detail in a public forum. Suffice it to say that in future a national representative will normally require at least the positive support of his national authority and that a national representative cannot normally be a member of the technical team. The results of the poll will be published in just over 3 weeks.
This leaves a shortage in manpower and Roger Stollery and Earl Boebert were invited to join the technical team. Both have accepted. For potted biographies, see the Official Website. Besides their great knowledge and experience, they have the great advantage of being outside the day-to-day business of Footydom.
In order to fit in with this arrangement, Angus Richardson has resigned from the technical team but remains UK National Representative. Bill Hagerup has resigned as US National Representative but becomes Chairman of the Technical Team. He and Angus also remain the Class Secretaries of their respective national associations – this is a purely national matter and below the radar of the international association.
Since then Brett has volunteered to stay on as the National Representative for New Zealand until a suitable replacement can be found.
We feel that the class is now stronger and better organised. Even more to the point, we look forward to going sailing with some exciting new boats over the next year.
Have a nice time y’all!
For the Footy Class Management Committee